'My shame at watching Tube thug beat passenger' admits Jeremy Vine

The Radio 2 presenter confessed that he was "very unhappy" that he did nothing as the assailant punched his victim to the carriage floor.

He said he will intervene "with unmitigated ferocity" if he finds himself in a similar situation again.

Mr Vine, 42, who is 6ft 3in, had earlier merely tut-tutted as the attacker sexually harassed a female passenger.

As a former correspondent in South Africa he is no stranger to reporting on violent crime.

And in February he was given some first-hand advice on how to react when confronted with anti-social behaviour.

Police minister Tony McNulty controversially told him in an interview that witnesses to violent crime should distract assailants by "jumping up and down".

Mr Vine, a father of two who also presents Panorama on BBC1, now clearly believes that direct intervention, not distraction, is the only language thugs understand.

Writing in the BBC's online magazine, he said: "I was sitting in a Tube carriage next to an attractive young woman. There was a guy sitting opposite me, who was kind of Neanderthal.

"He had obviously taken an interest in this woman. 'Hello darlin', give us a smile! Come on darlin'! It's not that bad is it?"'

"Then he leant forwards and started tapping her knee. And she kind of shrank back into her seat. I kind of 'tutted' and lifted my magazine even higher.

"Anyway, all the passengers on the Tube were aware of this. The Tube stops. The thug walks off down the platform, we're all quite happy he's gone.

"Another passenger flips him a V-sign. And then the disaster happens - the doors reopen.

"The thug runs back in. He's six foot three, his muscles are so big they're flexing against the Tube glass and he just starts beating seven bells out of this fellow.

"And actually when you see physical violence or are on the receiving end of it, it's very, very nasty.

"His fist went into the side of his head, blood came out, another fist, the guy goes down on the carriage floor, and the thug walks off very happy with himself. And I did nothing.

"The carriage was pretty full. But none of us did anything. It was terrible. It wasn't fight or flight, it was fight or sit there and watch. And I chose to sit there and watch. And I've replayed it many many times.

"I'm very unhappy that I did that, and I now have sort of resolved that if I see a similar kind of situation where I see someone being attacked like that, I will intervene with unmitigated ferocity.

"In some horrible way, I guess the fact that nobody did anything to stop this guy gives him permission to do that. That's the problem. He knows that he's on a train carriage, he's giving us a display of strength and the only way we can get involved is if we better him.

"I was sitting there and I had a biography of Oscar Wilde and it's about 700 pages.

"I reckoned that would have made a serious dent in his skull and also that it would have been a classy way to bring this guy down to the Tube floor, but of course as I have all these thoughts it's already too late.

"In fact, the moment you think about it, it's too late."

Mr Vine, who lives in West London, added that he did intervene on a bus recently, telling an unruly passenger who was defying the driver: "The bus driver is a public servant and this is his bus. Behave yourself."

He went on: "As soon as I said that everybody else on the bus flew at the guy. It was only because he caught my eye and I said something that everyone joined in."

Online responses to Mr Vine's piece have been generally positive, although some contributors said he could be beaten or prosecuted for intervening.